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The complete Star Wars Saga will come to Blu-ray Disc with a worldwide release in Fall 2011. The Star Wars Blu-ray Box Set will feature all six live-action Star Wars feature films utilizing the highest possible picture and audio presentation, along with extensive special features – including documentaries, vintage behind-the-scenes moments, interviews, retrospectives and never-before-seen footage from the Lucasfilm archives.

“Blu-ray is the absolute best way to experience Star Wars at home – in pristine high definition,” said George Lucas, creator of the Star Wars Saga. “The films have never looked or sounded better.”

I for one welcome our new Star Wars Blu-ray collection. And at this point, I don't even care which version we get as long as the issues with the DVD release are fixed (some audio issues and dodgy lightsaber discoloration).
It would be nice if all the existing features are carried over (along with the SE trailers for Empire and Jedi) but I know it's too early to assume anything. In terms of "vintage moments," I actually put together a small (incomplete) list of existing documentaries that were either filmed during the making of the films or produced for TV years later.
-“The Making of Star Wars” as seen on ABC-“SPFX: The Empire Strikes Back”-“Star Wars: Music by John Williams” as seen on the BBC-“Classic Creatures: Return of the Jedi”-“From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga”-“From Star Wars to Star Wars: The Story of Industrial Light & Magic” 1999 Fox TV special-“When Star Wars Ruled the World” as seen on VH1-“Animal Icons: Star Wars Creatures” as seen on Animal Planet-“Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed” as seen on the History Channel-“Star Wars Tech” as seen on the History Channel-“Star Wars: Feel the Force” as seen on Sky1Star Wars is also featured in the following AFI specials:-“100 Movies: America’s Greatest Movies”-“100 Thrills: America’s Most Heart-Pounding Movies”-“100 Heroes & Villains”-“100 Movie Quotes: America's Greatest Quips, Comebacks and Catchphrases”-“100 Cheers: America's Most Inspiring Movies”-“100 Movies: 10th Anniversary Edition”-“America’s 10 Greatest Films in 10 Classic Genres”

I can understand that Lucas does not want to invest considerable sums of money to restore versions of these films he feels unsatisfied with. I think it would be nice if he would at least meet fans half way with certain things. There's some nice things he did in his Special Editions, but there are also things that NOBODY likes and he knows it (unless He's just delusional, which is possible). I don't know why he insists on keeping that stuff in and insisting it makes the film better. How can the vast majority of fans be wrong? Take out Greedo shooting first, Jabba scene in ANH, restore "bring my shuttle". Take out the terrible "Jedi Rocks" sequence and like 95% of the complaints would subside.

None of it gets taken out because no matter how much people claim not to like it, they don't hate it enough to stop buying the product until whatever offends them is taken out. The product sells, regardless of the litany of complaints, and each sale only helps to validate in his mind that all of his decisions regarding the changes have been correct ones. Nothing will change until people get tired of him not listening and start refusing to buy his product. He'll only start listening when or if sales crash and burn, because the dollar is all that matters. However, that will never happen.

"You bring a horse for me?""Looks like......looks like we're shy of one horse.""No.......You brought two too many."

The horde of lawyers must not have heard about that Boston screening a couple weeks back. (And Lucas has prevented screenings of the original Star Wars before.) How much would it cost to scan that Technicolor print and clean it up, I wonder?

Since I suscribe to a customer-driven business model and not an owner-driven model, your response means absolutely squat. My post clearly describes which needs should be the driver in a customer/seller relationship and the owner's wants come dead last to the wants of his or her customers, but you seem to have ignored that fact and are stating something that I have already indicated I don't believe in or even consider as a legitimate consideration. If the owner's wants are more important than customers then don't enter the business of selling wares. As soon as you put your wares up for sale, the wants and needs of your customers come first, not your own.

Originally Posted by Chad R

I can't speak for the man, but I'm pretty sure he'd speak in terms of it being art, not business. And as the artist he believes his wishes are more important.

Lucas ALWAYS wants to have it both ways. If you tell him him his decisions make no artistic sense, he'll say "that's because I'm a businessman". If you tell him his decisions make no business sense, he'll say "that's because I'm an ARTIST". He'll put his "artist" hat on when it suits him, and his "businessman" hat when it suits him. If he was solely an "artist", he wouldn't have gone from "Greedo shoots first" to "Greedo shoots at the same time as Han", not to mention the various moves done solely to make business profits.

I saw this article last night after posting here and thought about putting it up. Glad somebody did. It's always nice to be vindicated by true insider information. I think the statement "George Lucas cares mostly about the money" is pretty well factual instead of opinion at this point. It doesn't change anything, but it's nice to be right Lucas is the Bizarro-Midas. ROTJ, the prequels, the last Indy--'nuff said.

Originally Posted by Douglas Monce

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The owner of the films, thats who...

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Doug

Too simplistic. The only art owned solely by the artist is art never released for public consumption. The line is certainly blurry, but denying the relationship between artist and patrons is ignoring a fundamental aspect of art.

I'm a pretty big Star Wars fan. No surprise to those on the HTF.
And this probably goes in the SW thread in the Movies forum anyway.
So it's safe to think the audio will be Dolby True HD? Although Fox supports DTS-MA. Lucas seems to always do Dolby though. Either way they should sound awesome.

Of course I'm buying these but like one member said I just hate the addition of Hayden's Anakin at the end of ROTJ. It just doesn't fit. I know I've seen & heard GL's reasoning and I actually think his reasoning is the opposite. The man who saved Luke from dying was indeed the older Darth Vader.

Not that I particularly love the change but young Anakin makes more sense than old Anakin with hair. Anakin looked like Hayden Christensen at some point in his life but he never looked like Sebastian Shaw with hair at any point in his life.

Ricardo, man, how long have you been in the States? Did you ever end up marrying that girl? (I seem to recall you breaking it off right before--hope I'm not stirring up bad memories.
On topic: I'm seen as a Lucas apologist around these parts, but I despise the changes to ANH--the Jabba scene and the already-dated Mos Eisley entrance scene worse than Greedo shooting first. Unless things are seriously improved from the last release, I'm gonna pass.

Hey Greg! Glad to see so many of the old gang still here
I arrived in January. Ashley and I got married back in Venezuela last year. We were going to live there for a while, since she's a big traveler and wanted to get to know the country, but political turmoil made it impossible. So, we applied for a family-based visa, and eight months (and a lot of paperwork and money) later I joined her here. In the meantime, she visited a lot, never staying more than three months at a time. Sucky way to spend our first year of marriage, but now we look at it as just paying our dues, and now we get to be together for good
Yeah, we had broken it off, but after a couple years found our way back to each other. So no bad memories being stirred, it all worked out in the end

It's great to see you again. Man, those were the glory days . . . waiting for Sith, talking about the prequels and all things Star Wars. It's funny how a lot of the crew from those threads has come back of late (Hi, Tim!). Glad to hear things worked out for you and Ashley. With Chuck and Travis up towards that way, Tim and I may have to carpool for a little Massachusetts Star Wars party.